Revellers take part in the "Plague Doctors Procession" in Venice on Tuesday night during the usual period of the Carnival festivities, most of which have been canceled following the coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy. Photo: Andrea Pattaro/AFP via Getty Images
The big picture: Most of the 80,000 COVID-19 infections have occurred in mainland China. But cases are starting to surge elsewhere. By Wednesday morning, the worst affected countries outside China were South Korea (1,146), where a U.S. soldier tested positive to the virus, Italy (332), Japan (170), Iran (95) and Singapore (91). On Tuesday, new cases were confirmed in Switzerland, Croatia and Algeria.
People buy face masks at a retail store in Daegu, South Korea, on Tuesday, where many of the country's infections have occurred. Photo: Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty ImagesThe closing minutes of trading on the New York Stock Exchange floor on Tuesday. Concerns of the coronavirus becoming a global pandemic saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average lose almost 900 points. There were 57 confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. as of Wednesday morning. Most are citizens repatriated from other countries. Photo: Scott Heins/Getty ImagesRevelers at the Nice carnival in France. The country had reported 14 infections by Wednesday morning. Photo: Valery Hache/AFP via Getty ImagesPassengers, from Algeria, Libya and Mauritania on a bus after being evacuated from China to Algiers, Algeria, on Tuesday, as the country became the first in Africa to confirm a coronavirus infection. Photo: Fatma Hamdi/Picture alliance via Getty ImagesA man who has recovered from the COVID-19 being disinfected by a medical professional before leaving the hospital in Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, in China. Photo: STR/AFP via Getty ImagesSome Londoners have taken to wearing masks on the tube. There were 13 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United Kingdom as of Wednesday morning. Photo: S.C. Leung/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesCoronavirus is a theme at the carnival in Duesseldorf, Germany, which confirmed 18 infections by Wednesday morning. Photo by Fabian Strauch/picture alliance via Getty ImagesA medical staff member takes the temperature of visitors to the Singapore Airshow as a precautionary measure. Photo: Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty ImagesItalian urban artist Salvatore "TVBOY" Benintende has depicted Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa wearing a mask and holding a mobile phone reading "Mobile World Virus" in a Barcelona street after the World Mobile Congress was cancelled in the city over coronavirus concerns. Spain had six confirmed cases by Wednesday morning. Photo: Pau Barrena/AFP via Getty ImagesPakistani soldiers patrol in Taftan, near Pakistan's now-closed border with Iran, which confirmed 95 cases by early Wednesday. Photo: Banaras Khan/AFP via Getty ImagesThe quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship at Daikoku pier cruise terminal in Yokohama, Japan. There had been a total of 691 confirmed infections among passengers and crew by Wednesday morning. Photo: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty ImagesSanitary workers disinfect Qom's Masumeh shrine to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Iran. The country reported at least 16 coronavirus-related deaths by Wednesday morning. Photo: Mehdi Marizad/Fars News Agency/AFP via Getty Images
A voter takes part in the Democratic primary in Purcellville, Virginia. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Voters in 14 states and one territory cast their ballots on Super Tuesday, tweeting and blogging along the way.
Why it matters: The huge delegate hauls of California and Texas this year make the day about as close as the U.S. gets to a national presidential primary.
Former Vice President Joe Biden thinks and Sen. Amy Klobuchar listens while Tom Steyer makes a point at the tenth Democratic presidential debate Tuesday night. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images.
Candidates spoke past their allotted time, punched the air, talked over each other and at times looked into the camera and directly addressed the American public and Russian President Vladimir Putin at Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina, the last before Saturday's primary and Super Tuesday a few days following.
Why it matters: South Carolina's contest on Saturday is a measure of African-American support for the 2020 contenders. It's the make-or-break state for former Vice President Joe Biden after he underperformed in the first three contests. It's also a chance to check Sen. Bernie Sanders' momentum, which has eaten into Biden's lead in the state and propelled Sanders to the front of the pack.
The Eiffel Tower in Paris. Photos: Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images; Stephane Cardinale-Corbis via Getty Images
The U.S. travel and tourism sector is set for a drop of 6 million international visitors because of the novel coronavirus, costing $19 billion in spending this year, per a report by Tourism Economics. "The present declines appear likely to be worse than what the US experienced in 2003 [after the SARS outbreak]," the report states.
The big picture: The global outlook is just as bleak. The report was released on March 11, two days after Italy announced a nationwide lockdown after a surge in cases. Since then, several countries have followed suit, European travelers face U.S. travel restrictions and the CDC has recommended gatherings of 50 or more people be postponed or canceled for eight weeks. The outbreak's impact is evident at many top travel destinations, where once-bustling hubs have been transformed into virtual ghost towns.